Ban Ki-moon Concerned, yet Optimistic

Though concerned by the slow pace of progress, United Nations’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s words to UN General Assembly were optimistic and forward looking. Secretary-General Pledges to ‘Promote Accountability on All Sides’. Disappointed that progress towards Millennium Development Goals are slow but hopeful and believes they are still achievable by 2015. He stressed on the need for world leaders to “adopt ‘Action Agenda’ on Way Forward, as General Assembly High-level Review of Progress, to achieve these Goals”.

Recently released status report for MDG as expected showed the great divide across the globe. It shows the huge disparity in availability of the basic necessities of life between haves and have nots. The disparity not only exists between richer and poorer nations, it continues to be the case within the richer nations’ demographics. Some geographies tend to be at a disadvantage either because of economic reasons or because of geographic location. Oceana, parts of Asia and sub saharan Africa seems to be significantly lagging behind. Enumerating the successes of the UN where it made a difference, the Secretary General sounded enthusiastic about the future. He concluded the second day on an upbeat note for going forward.

President Barack Obama delivering his speech at the UN stressed the need for a change in attitude for providing development assistance to the underdeveloped and developing countries. The theme of his speech was that we are all in it together. He stressed that regions of the world suffering from poverty and diseases are global problems that the first world cannot afford to continue to look away from. These things affect everyone and everywhere on the globe, no matter where one lives. He said “Together, we can deliver historic leaps in development.”

3 Responses to “Ban Ki-moon Concerned, yet Optimistic”

If birth rates in the developed world are too low for comfort those in the developing world are uncomfortably high. In the poorer parts of the world a massive population growth helping to raise the present number of human beings on this very finite planet from 5 billion to 11 billion by the mid-twenty-first century presents almost insoluble problems. moral and in terms of stability they are dangerous not just for the countries themselves but through the overspill of instability for the rest of the world.